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Thursday, April 4, 2013

The Road to CAG-BASH: Part 2

…First time behind the wheel

It's not Tuesday! I know, I know, I said I would post one of these every Tuesday. I had some issues with finding a good program to write up my battle reports, and with Tau coming out this week...yeah, I was busy. I will do my bestest to have the next one up by Tuesday. So....on to the first Battle Report!

If you remember from my last post, this is my first "primer" tournament before CAG-Bash. I've created my list, and we're trying it out for the first time. This primer was 3 games over the course of one Saturday. For the sake of simplicity, I'm not reporting on the first two games of this primer, partly because I don't really remember them and partly because...well, they ended pretty decisively. Nothing against my opponent's, they were both very nice gents, but I won both games handily.

However, the final game was a different story. I went into the third and last game of the day undefeated, against none other than Drkmorals!

Tournament Primer 1, Final game vs. Grey Knights / Imperial Guard

Hammer and Anvil deployment for this game with 3 objectives, one for each player to place worth 3 points each and one in dead middle worth 1 point.Elite units
are worth 1 point each and are scoring (nobody had Elites).Secondary objectives 1 point each (Slay the Warlord, Linebreaker, First Blood).

I win the deployment roll, and I go first.I rolled the Warlord trait
that lets me reroll reserves, so I didn’t need to be near the comms relay for
this one.Night fight for the first turn this game. A word on the terrain: all the grey boxes on the following map are ruins. The two solid grey terrain pieces are also ruins, but have substantial LOS blocking walls. Aegis lines are purple, Necrons/Chaos are red, and Grey Knights/Imperial Guard are blue. The skulls are the objectives for this match (I swear I'll get better at using this program for the next batrep).

Deployment A

Cpt. Loon: For starters, this map has a huge open space in the middle, which is good for me. He doesn't have much which can straight up penetrate my AV13 shields. I've also got cover in the back, so I can hide my cultists in a ruin and pray they live. I don't have to have them on the comms relay because of my warlord trait. Since this is the final game, I'm not worried about overall points for the tournament, so I'm just trying to win the game. I know after looking at his list that he's going to run a gunline with lots of shooting, so my overall battle strategy is to hang back and grab the middle objective on turn 5 or 6. Hopefully this will force him to move into middle and out from behind his Aegis, and I will just shoot him to death as he tries to cross no man's land. I might try to feint for his objective, but in reality, all I care about are my objective and the middle objective. I'm going for a very spread out deployment to give myself options. If I'm lucky, I can sneak my Deamon Prince and the Command Barge down the left side and flank him.Drkmorals: Boom! Check this out, you get both sides of the battle report. Which is cool right? So initially I look over his list and its a nice brutal list. I am pretty sure he has been destroying people. Heavy armor plus flyers with large troop units. If your not ready for the fact he can drop a large immortal squad and dakka you away It can be painful. Not to mention few lists online abuse this ability so I bet he surprises people with it. I would bet he was crushing guys by turn 3! The board is wide open in the middle also so honestly I am happy he wants to go first I want to see how he deploys to get an idea how he plays his list.

Deployment B

Cpt. Loon: He deployed farther back than I thought he would, and he is deepstriking the DK and a Strike Squad. That will be problematic, but I'm hoping my three annihilation barges can handle it. I'm sticking to the plan!Drkmorals: Clearly he is used to people moving up and allowing him to react to them is my initial thought from his deployment. My thought is this will come down to us fighting over one objective someplace most likely the middle. However one advantage I do have going for me is I out range him pretty badly. So I have no reason to move up until I am ready, I can react and focus fire units depending on his actions. The plan going in is simple, I drop my DK and a Strike squad on his side of the board I should be able to clear his cultists away and make him either give up his objective or have to deal with my troops being there. I plan to contest my own objective and depending on how it goes that will determine how important the middle is for me. I am guessing the middle is his primary goal and that he isn't used to people taking his from him so here's hoping my plan throws him off his game a bit. Depending on how he treats my blob I basically can push the rest of my army to the center.

Cpt. Loon: That's true, I was expecting him to move to mid faster than he did. I am always surprised by how many people play super aggressive in 40k, instead of taking the time to position well and strike at weak spots. I personally prefer a more mobile and tactical style of play, but some people prefer to just WAAAGH! and rush in. Drkmorals is far more cunning than that!

Turn 1: Top

Cpt. Loon: Probably the most boring turn in the history of Warhammer 40k. I did nothing but move around, partially because I'm waiting for my reserves, and partially because it's night time, so there's really no point in shooting at his stuff behind the aegis. My Prince flew forward into LOS blocking ruins. All of the barges went flat out for the cover. My plan is to bumrush down the flanks when my reserves come on, and hopefully he'll start moving out into the open so I can shoot him.Drkmorals: My new friend is cautious and plays it safe, I can only guess waiting for me to react. His turn was a ton of measuring and a few movements. Turn 1: Bottom

Cpt. Loon: Again, nothing happens. Everything is outside 36" range, so he just positions his troops some more. He did not, however, move out towards mid, which is not helping me at all.Drkmorals: I measure a few things and check LOS, he has done very well blocking his prince, if he had put him a few inches any other direction I would have pressed a Chimera up to search light the prince and use all my ranged weapons on him.. I decided to move up but stay outside of Barge range and Vector strike range. My turn took maybe 4 minutes lol.

Cpt. Loon: Now you see why I was so anal about my measuring on the first turn! I hadn't even thought about your searchlights, so I'm glad that didn't happen!

Turn 2: Top

Cpt. Loon: Everything comes on except the Heldrake. Prince and Command Barge haul booty down the left side. Two Scythes follow them, both carefully placed to get at least a 4+ cover from the ruins. One Scythe takes off down the right side, and manages to wreck the Psyfledread on the right side sitting in the ruins during the shooting phase (First Blood!). None of the Anny Barges are in range of anything, so they move up a bit to get Jink, but are still just waiting for things to deepstrike in.Drkmorals: Bummer I was worried about protecting my Chimmy's because of first blood and he killed a dread even with the cover save. Wasn't expecting that.

Cpt. Loon: Haha, I wasn't expecting that either! 3 glances was waaaay above average, given that he was in 4+ cover. That was pure luck.

Turn 2: Bottom

Cpt. Loon: Both the Vendetta and the DK fail their reserve rolls. That's what happens when you don't buy a comms relay! That's huge for me. The Icarus Lascannon takes a hull point off of the front Scythe on the left side, but at least forces it to Jink. The combat squadded Strike Squad that came on this turn, in combination with the Battle Tank in the back, kill about half of my cultists, causing them to break and run. On the downside, Coteaz and his Strike Squad, combined with the Chimera on the left, move into the ruins and shoot at my Prince. He comes crashing down and loses 3 wounds in the process. Eeep!

I was really counting on my Prince to have more wounds than that. At least he lived through it. Drkmorals: The Dread Knight coming on already would have been nice, but the Vendetta being late was fine its main goal is to shoot at the dragon when it comes on. I had planned on assaulting the Prince to kill him, He is sitting right next to a banisher, so Coteaz plus strikes means when I assault him I go first and he has to reroll all his inv saves, I have force weapons, rerolls to hit in combat due to my power going off, and he only has one wound. I'll take those ODDS!! I failed my charge roll though, >_<Turn 3: Top

Cpt. Loon: Alright, it's go time. Thankfully, my Heldrake comes on this turn. It Vector strikes over one squad, killing 3 of the 5, then uses daemon forge to flame the other 5 to death. Man these things are overpowered. It does take all 3 of my annihilation barges to kill the last two guys in the first squad though. The cultists rallied, thankfully. The scythe on the right moves up and shoots at the guard in cover. The Prince flies off the board. I'm thinking it would be smarter to bring him back to take on that DK next turn. The command barge and one of the Scythes on the left shoot/vector strike at the Chimera, but only manage to stun it. I was really hoping to make those guys disembark and walk, but no luck. Last but not least, I drop one unit of Immortals behind his Aegis and go to town on the Guard Blob. I think I killed 8 or so, but he passed his leadership. I did manage to take out all his heavy weapon squads in the blob though, so that's good. Drkmorals: The prince after ran away from Coteaz like the sissy he is!! =PMy Icarus cannon took a pop shot at the Heldrake, and with a 2plus to hit I roll a one. CRAP! I was at least hoping for a hit. Then the dragon messed me up good oh well. The mistake I did make though was leaving enough room he could drop his troops on the other side of the wall stealing my blobs cover saves. Something my lack of practice has brought me. It was a solid move on his part, that I wasn't expecting. Turn 3: Bottom

Cpt. Loon: His DK failed its reserve roll again!! Not good for him. Vendetta comes screaming on and goes straight for the Heldrake, but I Daemon save it. The Leman Russ in the back gets a direct hit and pie plates my Immortal squad, killing all but 2. Coteaz and his unit finish it off. The chimera in the back is stunned, so just sits there. The chimera on the right and the Psyfledread shoot ineffectively.Drkmorals: The Vendetta only hit and glanced with two shots and he saved them both. The Russ Reminded the Immortals it was to be feared basically wiping the squad out. Coteaz executes the surviving members of the blast so that they wouldn't get any Repair rolls. I really wanted the Dread Knight this is the first time he hasn't come on yet since I have been running him. The rest of my shooting was horrible and pointless. I am not doing horrible but I am not catching any breaks either at this point. Doesn't look good but I am not out yet.Turn 4: Top

Cpt. Loon: The Prince comes back on this turn, and hangs back a bit. I'm trying to deter him from placing his DK back there. Maybe the Prince will make him think twice.However, it's looking like I might be able to make a grab at his objective! I drop the squad out of the right Scythe in the corner and lay into his Guardsmen, killing the small squad that was there. (Just fyi, IwH3 stands for Immortals w/ Harbinger, squad 3).I move the Heldrake up and Vector strike the Vendetta, then flame Coteaz and his unit. I killed about half of them, but rolled a lot of 1s for wounding. The three annihilation barges finish off the vendetta. (This is wrong I clearly remember your prince Vector strike killing my vendetta because I was surprised. Plus how often does that happen?! You should totally add that to your tally of destruction! I believe it lived one more turn. It then wiffed all it's shots.. and your prince killed it.)I'm going to leave this in here as is, for two reasons: 1) It's a pain to go back in and generate new maps for the battle reports once they are finished and 2) The outcome of the battle remains the same. This game happened....3 months ago? So it's hard to get all the details perfect, but generally speaking this battle report is spot on. I also want to be up-front with whoever reads this report. I think I do a pretty fair job of recounting the game. I may get one or two things wrong, but overall the spirit and outcome of the game is preserved. So yes, I think you're right, my Prince did glance the Vendetta to death, but either way the outcome is the same!The middle Scythe flies off the board because he can't get a good shot on anything. The left Scythe takes some potshots at more guardsmen. I really want to get him off that objective!The command barge vector strikes over Coteaz's unit, more to be a big blocking piece of terrain than to try to kill anything. Since I know he has to kill the barge before he can kill my overlord, all I want to do is prevent his strike squad from walking to the objective before I can flame them to death.

Drkmorals: What did I say about not catching a Break, that Prince must be pissed that he ran from Coteaz because he ripped my plane out of the sky! Epic for game value, bad for me tourney wise.

Turn 4: Bottom

Cpt. Loon: Well the DK finally arrived. His flamer, along with another blast from the Leman Russ, left me with 3 cultists left. They ran again, the punks. I swear you can never trust a cultist to do their job.

Coteaz and his unit assault the Barge and blow it up. Fine by me, the Overlord hops out towards the Leman Russ. The left Chimera starts hauling to get back to the right side. The Chimera on the right shoots at my Immortal squad, killing three of them, but 2 get back up from Reanimation Protocols. Drkmorals: I am struggling at this point and I don't have a ton of options left. I dislodge his cultists again if they don't run off the table they are done for next turn regardless. I use Coteaz to kill the Barge and I take some pop shots with my other units but again my shooting is less than great.

Turn 5: Top

Cpt. Loon: The cultists rally again! These guys are champs, I knew I could count on them! That is big. I'm hoping now that by having those 3 cultists there he will be forced to move the DK over their way and stay away from mid. One night scythe flies on the board and positions to block the GK from moving to close to the cultists. The other two Scythes fly off. My immortals in the back keep advancing, like the implacable and soul-less robots they are. They finish off the guard blob.The overlord assaults the Leman Russ, blowing it up. The heldrake kills the rest of the Strike Squad, but not Coteaz, of course.At this point, I decided that it was better for me to try to take his objective than to try to kill that Dreadknight. The Prince and all of the Barges move as fast downfield as they can. I lucked out and got enough snapshots with the Barges to stun the right Chimera.Drkmorals The stunning of my Chimera's was again unexpected and maybe the nail in my coffin at this point.Turn 5: Bottom

Cpt. Loon: He doesn't have a choice. The DK moves up and flames the cultists off the board. The left Chimera moves up to make a last turn play to contest/take his own objective. Coteaz jumps in with the Acolytes. The Psyfledread shoots the Overlord to death.Drkmorals: I have been taking a beating and I haven't done the same amount of damage back this game. The cultist regrouping again hurts my chances to be able to use him for the middle objective. I move him so I can flamer the cultists and move toward the middle regardless though. I refuse to give up so I push for positioning as best I can and force him to deal with my units anyway. It's a dice game so you never know until its over!!

This will come down to the last turn and who can claim those objectives.Turn 6: Top

Cpt. Loon: Immortals move onto objective and take control of the Icarus Lascannon. The Prince lands in front of them to be a buffer. The heldrake flips into skimmer mode. One annihilation barge blows up the Chimera, and the heldrake flames everything that hops out, including Coteaz. However, the Tesla arced into the Prince and killed him! Arg, I killed my own Prince, I mean seriously! Fortunately, the Icarus Lascannon took out the Psyfledread. The last two Barges destroy the right chimera and its contents.

The last scythe with troops on it drop in middle. Two scythes move up and act as blocking units to prevent the DK from getting too close. Crafty!

Drkmorals: There isn't anything for me to do all his dice rolls go pretty smoothly so he is able to wipe out my forces.

Turn 6: Bottom

Cpt. Loon: And that's pretty much it. The DK gets as close as he can, and flames mid. He kills two immortals, and one gets back up.

Drkmorals: it was a very fun game and I can admit when someone gives me a beating. I felt like I quickly ended up playing catch up when a few dice rolls went really bad for me off the bat and I spent the game trying to push uphill and make him earn it anyway.. I made a major mistake with my defense line positioning and my shooting just wasn't doing it this game. His shooting was brutal all game and I never caught a break from that either.. Over all good game and fantastic test game I would be shifting my list with what I learned after three games today.. NEXT TIME Capt Loon **SHAKES FIST... NEXT TIME!!!

ConclusionHindsight can always be a little misleading. This was a really, really close game. A few dice rolls either way and the entire outcome would have been totally different. I got very lucky that his Dreadknight did not come on until turn 4. And the fact that not only did my Heldrake come on after his strike squads, but survived both a vendetta and an Icarus Lascannon....yeah, sometimes you just get lucky. My esteemed opponent had a very good list himself, and one I had not previously encountered, so kudos to him for putting together an original and deadly combination. In addition, we both had a lot of fun playing this game, and Drkmorals is a great guy to play 40k with.

Overall, I feel pretty good after this first Primer tournament. I didn't make a fool of myself, I learned quite a bit about how tournaments function and what to expect, and I took first place. Not bad!

Next week I'll be reporting on the second Primer tournament, where things get a little more dicey for our Robot Heroes...

About Me

You may know Drkmorals from such sites as MWC, FTW, STC, and now 40k Global. His personal site is Emperor's Codex. All these places he randomly spills 40k nonsense and tries to impact the community in a positive manner.